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Metoo Workplace Reforms in the States

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Metoo Workplace Reforms in the States 2020 PROGRESS UPDATE: METOO WORKPLACE REFORMS IN THE STATES NATIONAL WOMEN’S LAW CENTER | 20 STATES BY 2020 BY ANDREA JOHNSON, RAMYA SEKARAN, SASHA GOMBAR | SEPTEMBER 2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. ENSURING ALL WORKING PEOPLE ARE COVERED BY HARASSMENT PROTECTIONS 6 Protecting more workers 6 Covering more employers 7 II. RESTORING WORKER POWER AND INCREASING EMPLOYER TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY 8 Limiting nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) 8 Prohibiting no-rehire provisions 10 Stopping forced arbitration 11 Protecting those who speak up from defamation lawsuits 12 Transparency about harassment claims 12 Limiting the use of public funds in settlements 13 III. EXPANDING ACCESS TO JUSTICE 15 Extending statutes of limitations 15 Establishing discrimination and harassment helplines 15 Ensuring rights to be free from harassment can be enforced 16 Revising the “severe or pervasive” liability standard 16 Closing a loophole in employer liability 17 Ensuring employer liability for supervisor harassment 17 Redressing harm to victims of harassment 17 IV. PROMOTING PREVENTION STRATEGIES 19 Requiring anti-harassment training 19 Requiring strong anti-harassment policies 20 Requiring notice of employee rights 21 Requiring climate surveys 21 SURVIVOR - AND WORKER-LED ADVOCACY IN THE STATES ¡YA BASTA! Coalition: Ending sexual violence against janitors 7 Former New York legislative staffers bring about sweeping change 14 Hotel workers demand panic buttons 18 PAGE 1 SEPTEMBER 2020 | #METOO INTRODUCTION Three years after #MeToo went viral, the unleashed loss for Black women and Latinas.2 And the Movement power of survivor voices has led to more than for Black Lives has shined a light on the many forms 230 bills being introduced in state legislatures to of oppression that Black women, Indigenous women, strengthen protections against workplace harassment and other women of color continue to face at work, and a remarkable 19 states enacting new protections. often including shockingly low wages and poor working Although many of these laws are just starting to take conditions—inequities that the COVID-19 crisis has further effect, initial reports from the ground show both that exacerbated. Without a safety net or optimism about they are making a difference in many crucial ways, their chances of finding another job, workers are more but that this progress is incomplete. Indeed, states desperate to keep a paycheck at any cost and less willing have been slow to adopt some of the reforms that to report workplace abuses, increasing their vulnerability promise to make the biggest difference for those to harassment, discrimination, exploitation, abuse, most marginalized by harassment and for preventing and retaliation at work. Recognizing this, legislators in workplace harassment. states like North Carolina3 have continued to introduce legislation to strengthen workplace anti-discrimination As state legislative sessions began in 2020, energy and anti-harassment laws as part of the effort to rebuild remained high for advancing Me Too reforms. from COVID-19.4 Nearly 400 state legislators from 42 states and the District of Columbia—from both sides of the aisle— This report provides an updated overview of the joined the #20StatesBy2020 pledge declaring their progress that has been made in advancing workplace commitment to supporting and working with survivors anti-harassment reforms in the states from October to strengthen protections against sexual harassment 2017 to September 2020, as well as in New York City in 20 states by 2020.1 which has been especially active in strengthening its anti-harassment laws. The report also highlights some of The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic stalled much the stories of how survivors have led the push for these of this momentum as many state legislatures abruptly important state law reforms. shut down or shifted to emergency relief efforts just three months into 2020. At the same time, the need CLOSING IN ON WORKPLACE HARASSMENT for strong workplace anti-discrimination and anti- LAW REFORM IN #20STATESBY2020 harassment laws is clearer and more urgent than At a time when partisan politics seems to have reached a ever. COVID-19 unleashed an economic recession that fever pitch, the Me Too movement has seen conservative hit women hardest, with especially high levels of job and progressive state legislators alike, in states from PAGE 2 Tennessee to Oregon, speaking out and pushing for long PROGRESS SLOW ON REFORMS THAT WOULD HAVE overdue reforms to anti-harassment laws, many of them HIGHEST IMPACT FOR WORKERS MOST IN NEED OF motivated and united by their own Me Too stories. Many of PROTECTIONS the Me Too workplace reforms have passed with bipartisan Workers in low-wage jobs—who are disproportionately support. Major trends in the new reforms include the women of color and immigrant women—experience some of following: the highest rates of workplace harassment and most severe repercussions for speaking out.5 They should be the priority • 15 STATES LIMITED OR PROHIBITED EMPLOYERS from focus of workplace policy reforms, and yet, since #MeToo requiring employees to sign nondisclosure agreements went viral, only Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Vermont as a condition of employment or as part of a settlement have been able to pass the most basic and crucial reform— agreement. ensuring that the many low-paid gig workers, domestic workers, home healthcare workers, and other workers who • 11 STATES AND NEW YORK CITY IMPLEMENTED OR work for smaller employers or as independent contractors STRENGTHENED ANTI-HARASSMENT TRAINING have legal protections against workplace harassment requirements for certain employers. Likewise, only California, Oregon, and New York meaningfully • 7 STATES ENACTED MEASURES TO REQUIRE OR extended their statute of limitations for bringing a workplace ENCOURAGE EMPLOYER ANTI-HARASSMENT POLICIES harassment claim to three or more years, even though initial • 7 STATES LIMITED EMPLOYERS’ USE OF FORCED reports from jurisdictions that recently enacted this reform ARBITRATION, though several of these laws are being emphasize that it has been especially important for workers challenged in court. in low-wage jobs, who otherwise are often forced to choose between using their time to get another job to support their • 6 STATES EXPANDED WORKPLACE HARASSMENT family or finding legal counsel, bringing a harassment claim, PROTECTIONS to include independent contractors, and seeking justice. The necessity of this reform has grown interns, and/or volunteers for the first time. even more urgent with the COVID-19 crisis limiting access to courts and agencies and increasing the economic instability of so many workers. In some states, important protections for low-wage workers were actually rolled back. In D.C. and Michigan, measures that raised the tipped minimum wage so tipped workers would no PAGE 3 longer have to tolerate harassment from customers to make ends meet were repealed.6 THE BE HEARD IN THE Reforms that would more fundamentally shift employers’ WORKPLACE ACT: A FEDERAL incentive and ability to prevent harassment have also BILL AND A MODEL FOR STATE proven challenging. Since #MeToo went viral, only ACTION California and New York have succeeded in updating the standard for what constitutes illegal workplace harassment and only Maryland, Delaware, and New York In April 2019, U.S. Representative Katherine Clark have updated standards for when employers are liable and Senator Patty Murray introduced in Congress for that harassment. Existing standards have for too long the Bringing an End to Harassment by Enhancing allowed employers and courts to minimize and ignore Accountability and Rejecting Discrimination the impact and reality of workplace harassment and (BE HEARD) in the Workplace Act—a landmark, power dynamics, especially in low-paid workplaces. And comprehensive workplace anti-harassment bill.8 only Virginia, New York, and Connecticut have increased This bicameral bill has the support of 169 members the financial relief available to harassment victims to an of congress and over 50 civil rights, women’s amount that would meaningfully incentivize employers rights, and worker’s rights organizations. While to address and prevent harassment. Congress has yet to move the great majority of anti-harassment reforms that have been introduced Only Vermont and New York City have taken steps to since #MeToo went viral, BE HEARD can serve as require climate surveys in more workplaces, despite a legislative model for states looking to carry the the importance of such surveys in helping employers torch of Me Too workplace policy reform in the understand the prevalence of harassment in their face of congressional inaction. workforce and providing an important anonymous Specifically, the BE HEARD in the Workplace Act channel for workers to raise concerns. And even the would: policies passed by Vermont and New York City are relatively modest. • extend protections against harassment and other forms of discrimination to all workers; Finally, while much progress was made in 2019 and 2020 • remove barriers to access to justice, such as in response to workers and survivors demanding broad short statutes of limitations and restrictively policy solutions to address workplace harassment, too interpreted legal standards; many reform efforts remain narrowly focused on sexual • promote transparency and accountability, harassment, undercutting protections for women of including by limiting the use of abusive NDAs color, immigrants, people with disabilities,
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